Transistors are semiconductor devices that are commonly found in a wide variety of integrated circuits. A transistor is basically a switch. When a voltage is applied to a gate of the transistor that is greater than a threshold voltage, the switch is turned on, and current flows through the transistor. When the voltage at the gate is less than the threshold voltage, the switch is off, and current does not flow through the transistor.
One type of transistor is a multiple-gate field-effect transistor (MuGFET), which is a FET that has more than one gate in a single transistor device. Furthermore, one type of MuGFET is a finFET. A finFET is a nonplanar, multiple-gate transistor formed on a substrate. By comparison, a non-finFET is a transistor that is formed within a substrate. A distinguishing characteristic of a finFET is that a conducting channel is wrapped around a thin fin that forms the body of the device.